This online program offers an intensive engagement with Immanuel Kant's critical philosophy through close reading of his Critique of Pure Reason in fall and his Critique of Judgment in winter, with his Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals spanning both quarters. Our central questions will be Kant’s: what are the conditions of possibility for knowledge, aesthetic experience, morality, and judgment? What are truth, beauty, goodness? Our goals will be to trace his arguments and map his terms, learn to navigate challenging historical texts and sharpen our own analytical and interpretive skills. Students will learn to work with primary philosophical texts (in translation), to analyze complex arguments, to write clearly about difficult ideas, and to situate their own thinking in relation to a key figure in the history of philosophy. Kant’s critical system marks a turning point in that history, and his work is crucial to understanding idealism, materialism, psychoanalysis, and 20th and 21st century projects in critical theory.
The program is structured around twelve synchronous hours and three asynchronous hours of work each week. Our synchronous sessions will be devoted to collaborative close reading, philosophical discussion, and working through Kant's intricate argumentation together. Students will form dialogue partnerships as well as intellectual salons and study groups for sustained collective inquiry. The program will attend (virtually or in person as you are able) the Art Lecture Series as part of our work on aesthetics and the philosophy of art. The asynchronous component will add audio and video lectures, directed reflection, research, and writing.
Students will maintain thorough notebooks, write short analytical essays, and, for winter quarter, develop a longer writing project in response to Kant’s work that will get developed over time and be workshopped in salon sessions. This longer project might be a sustained philosophical essay, something scholarly but more open form like a lyrical essay, a limited research project that brings Kant into conversation with other thinkers or contemporary questions, or (with faculty approval) a long form creative project.
Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:
Fall Anticipated Credit Equivalences:
8 - Philosophy: Epistemology and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason
6 - Philosophy: Analysis, Writing Intensive
2 - Individual Projects (variable)
Winter Anticipated Credit Equivalences:
8 - Philosophy: Value Theory: Kant’s Moral Theory and Aesthetics
4 - Philosophy: Analysis, Writing Intensive
4 - Individual Projects (variable)
Registration
Students will need to submit a writing sample demonstrating careful work with a challenging philosophical text, and agree to complete an abbreviated syllabus of fall quarter materials over the break and at the beginning of winter quarter. Please contact eamonk@evergreen.edu with your writing sample and a note of introduction letting her know why you want to join the program.
Academic Details
This program will help prepare participants for further studies in philosophy, critical theory, aesthetics, ethics, intellectual history, and humanities disciplines. It will help prepare participants for careers in teaching, research, writing, editing, law, ethics consulting, and any field requiring rigorous analytical thinking and clear argumentation.